hate to love the split

From my previous What’s in a name? post I told you I was digging House Food Random, so I changed to it to hate to love the split. Hate is a bit strong by “dislike to love the split” just didn’t have quite the same ring to it. I’m basically just trying to clue you into the fact that I’m on a journey to love my split entry home.  In doing some research I found “4 reasons people hate split-levels- and how to fix ’em” by  Christopher Solomon of MSN Real Estate. It was quite encouraging. How many more times can I work quite into this post? 

1. No curb appeal. 

2.Floor plan doesn’t foster entertaining.

1. It’s too dark.

2. Not enough room.

Hot diggity dog! I consider #2 and #4 done.  Our upstairs is quite open right now and as soon as we’re done with the basement I think entertainment will be fully fostered. And #4 not enough room… 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms is plenty. Ours is abnormally long though, so when you look at it from the outside it looks small until you come inside and wham, in your face! Speaking of outside…#1 curb appeal. The “Split Visions” handbook by ROBERT GERLOFF, AIA + JEREMIAH BATTLES has some really neat ideas. This sort of work didn’t quite make it on the listy listy because it’s so far down priorities. We’ve got what they call a split-entry short faced, on page 8 & 9 they show how to upgrade the facade and gain room in the entry. Cool huh?

And #3 too dark. Yes, the kitchen is dark. Our kitchen is in the back east side of the house so there isn’t much natural light in the afternoon/evenings (when chef Emelia is in da house) and the artificial lighting in the kitchen is lacking.